A very belated IHSW and very big Thank You!

Hi there stunners!

A big welcome to my new followers Megan B, Miamina, Julie C, Linda, Terri P and Milly M. Thank you so much for joining me on this awesome journey I have undertaken in the world of craft and cross stitch!

IHSW

I apologise for the lateness of my posting for IHSW! But as usual when I have a weekend at home planned to sit and stitch there is always a last minute rescheduling. But luckily it was a good one! I only had 4 days left on my month long holiday (sabatical LOL) left so I decided to head up to the coast to Fingal Bay, Port Stephens to wring every drop out of my time off from work.

So with stitching and bags packed I headed to the coast on Sunday and didn't get back to late  Wednesday night and was back at work at 0630 the next morning...tired tired Princess! But it was great to see everyone again and give out the little gifties that I accumulated along the journey.

But unfortunately this is the first chance I've had to blog.

This was what I managed to accomplish on the beach at Fingal Bay.

She's called "I found my family in a book!" She is one of many of the Gorjuss series by Bothy Threads. I have 3 more which I'm really chuffed about as they are so so easy and fun to stitch.

I technically made my IHSW Sunday and Monday. So between dips in the ocean, gulping down oysters and sipping chardonnay on the sand ( or was it sipping oysters and gulping chardonnay??? ) I managed to get all the stitching on the girl completed. Still to come is the backstitch, a teeny bit of beading and the book and scissors that are scattered at her feet. She's got alot of sparkly bits but as you all know these just don't show up in the pics even though I took it in the bright morning sun! I will get a chance in the next few nights to check out everyone else's shennaningans on the IHSW - looking forward to it stunners!

THANK YOU NICOLA

A great big thank you to Nicola Maltby of Obsessive Cross Stitcher fame for her kind gift of a chart from Heaven and Earth Designs.

Nic bought me the full version of Sunflower Cottage by Dona Gelsinger

Isn't it beautiful??? I can't wait to stitch it and it's going in the rotation as soon as I finish one of my current 5 BAP's that I'm working on. So not long now (Hee hee)!

However due to some weird computery glitchy wahoo the email sent from Nic via HAED website got lost in the nethers of cyber space so in the meantime I had already purchased this same chart in the sale (along with another BAP! I know I know!!!) Michele Sayetta generously offered to send me a replacement chart so I picked Water Faery by Nadia Strelkina

She will be the sister to Faery 2 which is a current wip. So a very lucky and blessed Princess to have such a generous and thoughtful friend like Nic. I think most of you are followers on her blog if not check it out. We are true sisters of colour, Nic loves vibrant projects too and like me her stash and Wips are numerous!!!! It's a brilliant blog. 

So now I'm back to work tonight and kinda glad of it too as I can relax and go back to my normal cross stitch rotations. Holidays are fun but I travelled to 3 states in the month and it was a bit hectic although loads of fun. The ole cross stitch did suffer a bit but all good now.

Thanx for reading this far and I will be posting soon re the Leibster awards as I was truly blessed and genuinely humbled to receive 6 awards from other bloggers. I am going through all my blogs trying to catch up with everyone. I'm working one single nightshift tonight so will post again tomorrow night. I just don't want the awesome girls with brilliant taste (hee hee) who nominated me to think I have neglected to thank and honour them too. I just want to do it when I have time to sit and do it properly.

Stay tuned my pretties!

Love you stunners

Alicia xox

Wipocalypse - The Crafty Princess

Hi Stunners!

I wanted to show you alot more progress than this as I was hoping that since I'm on leave I would have more time. But it would seem that Murphy's law has kicked in and the more time you have away from work it seems that other things fill it up. But progress is progress and I've done the best I could despite driving over 5000 kms to South Australia and Victoria, battling flood zones, a moody mother, wine time, and other interesting distractions.

So for this months Wipocalypse only 3 goals out of 6 were adhered to (kinda sorta anways):

Goal 1

Completed not quite 340 stitches per day more like 700 per month on Faery 2 (d'oh)

Before

After

Goal 2: No progress

Goal 3: No progress

Goal 4:

Progress but not as much as I intended. Trying to stick to 100 stitches per day but came in at about 1600 or so stitches shy of this goal.

Before

After

Goal 5: Progress but forgot to take a photo before my last shift at work.

Goal 6:

Progress on the rotation wip

Before

After - You'll notice I had to do a bit of frogging on the pink background. Decided it wasn't blingy enough so I am using the sparkly DMC 819
(sorry about clarity of pic it was taken at twilight).

I thought I would include some holiday pics so you could understand why goals were not met for this Wipocalpyse.

What every household needs! An underground cellar to store your bulk wine!!
That's Poochie and Penguin (yet to be named) who were my awesome companions during the trip.

This is the underground cellar at Seven Hills Winery which is the oldest winery in the Clare Valley (Sth Aust). It was established in 1851 by the Jesuits to produce sacramental wine. Which they still do till this day. I bought 3 bottles of the Chardonnay though. Hey you can go to church and get their wine for free so why buy it???

Sunset as Semaphore SA near Port Adelaide. Aww pretty!

These are pics of scary driving through floods. I was desperate to get home, as the locals said that if I stayed one more night I would be stuck in Narrandera or Wagga Wagga for a week. No offence to the locals but get me out of here!!!!! So I drove through scary lakes where there once was a road trying to get back home. I ended up having to cross the state line for 3 states 5 times during the day in a bid to navigate my way home.

This is actually a road. To the right of the car is farmland, not a lake or river that overflowed, to the left is houses. My heart went out to them those poor people that were still repairing from the last floods and they got hit again. But I will say that even though the residents were facing total destruction of all their property they still waited at the end of this lake road with their 4wd vehicles and winches in case any of the stupid tourists (yes like me) came unstuck and (shudder) stalled in the middle. And they gave an almighty cheer when I made it safely through. People can be so awesome!

Well strangers can be awesome but not my parents!! LOL! I was absolutely crapping myself driving through this and almost in hysterical tears, I could feel my beautiful 1 year old Mazda of DMC 995 colour absolutely struggling against the water. It was almost over the bonnet. In hindsight it was pretty stupid to attempt it but I was soooo soooo desperate to get home.

My father in the front passenger seat was happily taking snappy photos and going "Oh man" and "Whoa look at how high the water is!" whilst my mother in the back seat was knitting a scarf and just kept saying "It's ok darling just keep going" without once lifting her eyes from her knitting. Ah you gotta love crafters! Nothing deters them from creating and getting those UFO's completed. Not even natural disasters, which is probably why Measi's Wipocalypse is so popular. We are all like End of the World??? I don't think so biatch I've got stitching to finish!!!!

I would like to make a special mention to "The Lovely Boys" from Sew it all (Australia). Mrs Dibble, Aunty Nene, Mummy, Jen and I went to the Craft show at Rosehill Racecourse on Friday. I love catching up with Peter and Wayne they are the coolest and loveliest boys. They specialise in all kinds of cross stitch fabrics and accessories including their own range of hand dyed fabbies. All of my wips posted on this post are being worked on fabrics I purchased from them (Mind you my photos don't show up how fantastic these fabrics look in reality).

The boys have also designed and patented Grip N Stitch frames which are great for small to medium projects as unlike Qsnaps they never ever lose their firmness. And I found out they now do framing at a third of the cost and their frames can be painted, papered and whatever you like to make your project truly unique. Plus they are really cool and so helpful. Their website is http://www.sewitall.com.au/. They also ship worldwide for the non Aussies! So check them out if you get a chance. Ok there's my shameless plug but I adore them.

 

I hope everyone enjoyed this months Wipocalypse - I'm about to head to all your blogs to snoop, stalk and support your efforts!

The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary.  ~Mary Kurtz

Good one Mary!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed this months Wipocalypse

Take care stunning followers and guests!

Alicia

xoxo

And now for this post's quote:

Thank You to My Valentine Girls

Hi Stunners!

Welcome to my newbie followers Blu bird 7, Abbeybeth, Leslie D and Nikkin I hope I keep you entertained enough to stay for the journey.

I'm leaving for a road trip tomorrow for about 10 days to South Australia via Melbourne. I'm doing a coastal drive down the Great Ocean Road (which I remember being so beautiful but I was just a nipper when I was last there). Due to budget flights and petrol prices we tend to fly everywhere. So I decided to take a road trip to actually enjoy the country and not just fly by it. Plus as my kilometres on my vehicle lease needs about 6000km's on it by the end of March I thought it would be a good excuse.

However I couldn't leave without just writing about the most amazing Valentine's day. I'm single so I didn't hold for anything interesting to happen.

But I received this cute little pink and white dog holding a pink heart with the words "Be Mine" on it from my bestie girlfriend Lori. It played "You can't hurry love" and the dog danced and swayed to the music whilst it's pink floppy ears went up and down. It's sooo cute.

I had an awesome dinner at Manly wharf with Tania and Danni, tasted the best gourmet pizza - EVER! Not to mention the vino!

And then checked my emails 2 days ago and Nina aka Pistellan Stitching sent me a Heaven and Earth design chart as a gift. It was such a sweet sentiment as she couldn't find my wishlist so Nina checked the JBG's and Hannah Lynn's to try and find something I would like. But ended up buying a mini as they are the latest things from HAED so safely assumed I didn't have one and picked this one:-



Mini Hammock White Tiger



Isn't he gorgeous...I actually squealed when I opened up the link and saw the chart. I adore it! I was so touched that Nina went to all the trouble to search for a chart she thought I would love, and she was so right. He's perfect!

I will be starting him soon as I haven't got a "MINI" category in my rotation so will slip him in. When you have a rotation of 21 Wip's 22 really isn't such a big deal LOL!  See I can justify anything. But I promised myself not to start him until I finished Spring to life..I'm on the last page so should have it done when I get back from my trip. Fingers crossed.

It's going to be awesome - me on a blanket, stitching, wine and cheese in arms reach and just the serenity. I bought an Audio book "Halo" by a young writer Alexandra Adornetto or something like that (sorry but it's packed and not undoing it all to check) to listen to if the quiet gets tooo quiet!

So I just wanted to thank my 4 Valentine goddesses, Lori, Danni, Tania and Nina for making my Valentines day so awesome! Who needs men when you're surrounded by angels???

I will post all my holiday progress when I get back around the 4th March.

Take care stunners and I hope you all had an fantastic V day as well. Thanx again girls you are so cool!

Cheers

Alicia xoxo

P.S. Sorry I haven't been able to go through everyone's blogs but I've been so busy trying to get ready for this trip. But I have a month off work starting from today, so when I get back I will have all the time to read blogs and stitch and drink all the wine I buy from Sth Oz...oh man life is good!

~WIPocalypse and a Happy Princess~

Hey there stunners!

Welcome to my lovely new followers Shazzump, the two Christine's, Rachel, Summer and Borduur! Thanx for taking the time and I hope you enjoy the journey! Destination to be advised though hee hee!

Well it's the second coming of the WIPocalypse and I haven't achieved as much as I would have liked but I did come to a realisation. My WIPocalypse goals were a tad too adventurous. There was no way that I could stitch 680 stitches on Faery 2 plus keep up with the HAED Freebie SAL, work on the Wips in my rotation and eat, sleep, go to work, the gym, play any video games or see any of my friends! Something had to give!

So I have halved the Faery 2 stitches per day to a more manageable 340 and the Freebie SAL to 100 per day. This way I still had at least 6 hours or so in a day to work on the projects in the rotation or do other fun stuff.

I reworked the goals only a week ago so not much to see on Faery but I've made a good start on QS Lovers by Nene Thomas. I have kept up with the required 100 per day. So one goal achieved - awwesommmme!!!



Progress as of 1st February



My rotation piece for this week is Selina Fenech's "L" Sampler letter. This is where I am at the start of the week. Yeah I know it's Thursday but I start my rotation's on Friday to coincide with HAED weekly SAL. That way if the piece in my rotation fits that weeks theme I can join in on that too.  For some reason SAL's always make me stitch more. I really like the thought that we are all working away on our individual projects yet come together from all over the globe to joy ride on the same luxurious cruise liner ( hey I am a Princess, to use the word boat seems so peasant like LOL!!)

It will eventually spell LOVE! Cos that's all that matters in life.  I want to wake up to a reminder every morning (or night depending on what shift I'm on) seeing this cross stitch to remind me that nothing is as important in my life as love. Not just in the receiving but more in the giving. I see it everywhere in my life and it's so cool!

Rotation piece for this week - L



I have a work project as well which I have added to my goals. This is a project that I only stitch whilst at work. Mrs. Dibble, Aunty Nene and I have an awesome job where we do 12 hour shifts approx 3-4 shifts per week on a 24 hour rotational roster. As we work in an emergency service radio room we have down time especially between 2am and home time at 7am. So if we can manage to keep our eyes open we are allowed to work on our cross stitches.

So I will be working on the Jungle Babies Birth sampler for my work colleague Blair who had a baby recently (Well 4 months ago so I had better get some kind of firework under my bottom). I think it was a girl, good lord I had better find that out. Here is where I am up to so far with that one....hmm not good Princess not good.

Jungle babies

The reason I am a happy Princess as the title indicates is that I have been consistent in one thing which was one of my NYE resolutions. That being to go to the gym on a regular basis. With the help of my personal trainer Tim I have managed to lose 10 kilos since the start of the year. YAY!!!!

Still can't believe I pay a 19 year old boy to stand there for half an hour and tell me to climb invisible mountains, row across invisible seas and lift heavy balls above my head. But it's all worth it in the end. I feel great and when I'm sitting and cross stitching for hours I don't feel any guilt. Plus guilt is a waste of energy. I'd rather put that energy into feeling awesome and blissfully happy. So I ensure that I am always on that feeling frequency of happiness, no matter what I am doing. It's life changing!

That's all for this week. I will post again in a week with my progress.

Quote for the week

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.  ~Danny Kaye

I wish you all every happiness this week and I hope that at least one thing happens in your life that makes you awestruck. Let me know!

Go for it stunners and have fun!

Love Alicia

xoxo

WIPocalypse - January 9

Hi Stunners!!!


Sorry it's been over a month between posts but you know how it is over the Christmas and New Year period.


Welcome to my 10 latest followers, I hope you enjoy it here and thank you so much for your interest.


This is my Wipocalyspe post for Measi! I intend to have at least 4 finishes by the end of 2012.

GOAL 1 :

Complete 680 stitches a day on Strelkina's "Faery 2". So far not good!

 

As you can see I haven't actually kept to this so far but I have 2 full stitching days commencing tomorrow and will only be concentrating on my Faery 2 during these days. Once I'm on top of her again I will start my rotation!!

GOAL 2:
Hannah Lynn's "Spring to Life"

GOAL 3:
Hannah Lynn's "QS Fragile Heart" 

GOAL 4:

"QS Lovers" - Nene Thomas. No progress yet! Off to a great start on this one!


GOAL 5:
See Goal 1!


Thank you Measi for organising this fantastic SAL. I don't envy you having to go through all the hundreds of contributors. I will enjoy seeing everyone's entries, though it may take me all month to get around to all of them.


Good luck to all of you that are joining in the Wipocalypse. I need to go and put in another 2000 stitches before I can have a glass of chardonnay.


Happy stitching and enjoy every moment of your life!


Take care stunners xoxo
Alicia

~~~~My Baby Blog turns 1 ~~~~

Hello Stunners!

Welcome to 3 new followers Rachel, Elisa and Titti. Thanx for joining in the journey!

Happy First Birthday Crafty Princess!!

Well stunners, I can't believe it but it's been a year since I started this blog. November 15th 2010 was my first post. This blog was started as a way of keeping me in stitches and also to have a visual journal of my craft.

So here it is! My year in STITCHES!  Of course all New starts will only have one pic but charts I had started prior but worked on during the year will have a before and after progress pic. Enjoy!

Crimson Glomour - HAED - Ching Chou Kuik

Originally on 28ct creme evenweave 1 over 1 full cross

Restart on Autumn Fire 28ct 2 over 1 tent stitch.



 Where is my Valentine? - HAED - Jasmine Becket-Griffith

28 ct white Lugana 1 over 1 full crosses

Page 1 & 2 completed

Lost in You - HAED- Rachel Marks

22ct white Hardanger 2 over 1 full crosses

Page 1 completed



Release - HAED - Jessica Galbreth

28ct White Lugana 2 over 1 tent stitch

Emerald Forest - Kustom Krafts - Colin Bogle

14ct Khaki Aida 3 over 1 full crosses

Guardian Angel - HAED - L.A Williams

28ct Antique White Opalescence Hardanger 1 over 1 full crosses

1 and a half pages completed



Fractal 45 - Cross stitch Collectibles

14ct Aida Black 3 over 1 full crosses

Faces of Faery 88 - HAED - Jasmine Becket-Griffith

14ct Purple Haze Aida 3 over 1 full crosses

My first HAED finish!

QS Fragile Heart - HAED - Hannah Lynn

Originally 22ct White Hardanger 2 over 1 full crosses

Restart (due to making a hole in fabby after frogging debacle)

22ct Black Hardanger 2 over 1 full crosses

42 rows completed out of  176

QS Spring to life - HAED - Hannah Lynn

25ct Fairy Forest Lugana 1 over 1 full crosses

4 and 3/4 pages completed.

Faces of Faery 164 - HAED - Jasmine Becket-Griffith

25ct White Opalescence Lugana 2 over 1 full crosses

L sampler letter - Selina Fenech - HAED

3 over 1 full crosses 14ct White Opalescence Aida

Jungle Baby Animals Birth record

2 over 1 full crosses 14ct White Aida

Froth and Bubble Sampler - Long Dog Samplers

32 ct Summer Khaki Linen 2 over 2 full crosses

Golden Wood - HAED - Ruth Sanderson

22 ct White Hardanger 2 over 1 full crosses



Ok so that's me in a year. I least I got one finish in there with 12 new starts LOL!! I'm now off to sort out my craft room and stash.  I will be working hard on Fragile Heart till the end of the year as I have signed up for HAED's freebie SAL 2012 and I really want to have 2011's finished first. Plus will be making a start on Faery 2 by Strelkina (HAED) as she will be my focus piece on 2012 WIPocalypse SAL which I also signed up for with Measi's musings.

Other than that I have promised myself no more new starts and I will be returning to my rotation in the New Year. I won't be participating in any more goal challenges on the HAED BB for 2012 at least, as when I try to keep to them so many of my charts don't see the light of day.

On top of the work as previously shown I also have a Mystic Stitch BAP, Golden Kite BBBAP and a Scarlet Quince BAP that I never picked up once in the year. So back to the weekly rotation for me in the new year!

Thank you everyone that has followed me during the year. I appreciate all your support, comments, advice and suggestions. It's purely due to you and this blog that I have kept up with all my stitching. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Please stay tuned for 2012 as I endeavour to make a massive effort when it comes to my stitching. I have devised a plan that will enable me to complete a BAP in 8 months.....YAY!!

Take care beautiful stunners

Be happy in everything that you do!

xoxo Alicia